


You are my breath of fresh air

by Nik0lai



Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: M/M, Oblivious Aziraphale (Good Omens), Retirement, South Downs Cottage (Good Omens), even if they can't admit it to themselves, they're in love, tired crowley, we're all looking at you aziraphale
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-27 12:30:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20046058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nik0lai/pseuds/Nik0lai
Summary: "Do you ever just feel... tired?""Well I definitely know you do dear, you slept an entire century, remember?" Crowley did remember - fondly - that the only time he got up in 100 years was to go to the Lavatory and that was honestly the best piss he took in all his earth bound life."Not tired like you want to sleep, tired like... you want a rest from the rest of life." he was definitely hesitant putting this out there, but he's been thinking about this quite a lot since he delivered the antichrist to the babbling order of St Beryl's."You mean like a holiday?" Aziraphale asked curiously putting down his fork and resting it on his plate (no need to dirty the table)"No, I mean like a real retirement, Angel" he firmly stated."Oh"





	1. Chapter 1

It was a long week, Crowley thought to himself as he leaned as far back as the back of the chair would allow him to go without falling in an undignified manner. The day was of course considered the longest in his life (apart from the very first day in Eden with Angel) what with the world on route to ending, then the Antichrist deciding, actually, he doesn't want the world to end and so can it please stop ending? And also that's not my dad, what do you mean? My dad doesn't have six horns and red leathery wings, he has brown hair with a few gray hairs and a perfectly respectable back thank you very much. All this along with Heaven and Hell respectively striking them off their register and collectively deciding to ignore them until the next apocalypse.

He could feel himself start to slip on the chair and so he abruptly sat up straight and slapped his hands on the table scaring Aziraphale who was sat opposite him slowly eating his devils food cake and he looked up at Crowley with wide eyes

"Yes dear, what is it?"

"Do you ever just feel... tired?"

"Well I definitely know you do dear, you slept an entire century, remember?" Crowley did remember - fondly - that the only time he got up in 100 years was to go to the Lavatory and that was honestly the best piss he took in all his earth bound life.

"Not tired like you want to sleep, tired like... you want a rest from the rest of life." he was definitely hesitant putting this out there, but he's been thinking about this quite a lot since he delivered the antichrist to the babbling order of St Beryl's.

"You mean like a holiday?" Aziraphale asked curiously putting down his fork and resting it on his plate (no need to dirty the table)

"No, I mean like a real retirement, Angel" he firmly stated.

"Oh"

Crowley risked looking up into Aziraphale's eyes and saw confusion and consideration. His eyes were staring thoughtfully at his fork as he pondered the idea in his head.

"So you're going to 'retire' somewhere in the country to get some peace and quiet?"

"With you, yes." (obviously)

"With me? I thought you wanted some quiet away from it all?"

"After the couple days we've had, angel I don't want to leave you ever again. Why do you think I didn't go to Alpha Centauri when you said you wouldn't go with me. _You_ were the deciding factor." (again, _obviously_)

Aziraphale had the audacity to look shocked, his mouth hanging open slightly with his eyes widened. (he looked like shocked Pikachu Crowley thought absent-mindedly)

"Me?"

"_Obviously_" he nearly cried "I thought you knew all this, which is why I never said anything."

Aziraphale's eyes dart quickly to Crowley's sunglasses with a new desperation "What did you think I knew?"

"That I was in love with you?" delivered bluntly enough that it felt like a physical blow to the angel "I thought we just weren't putting labels on it since the 60's happened?"

Aziraphale wheezed out something along the spluttering lines of "the _sixties??"_

Crowley sighed deeply, feeling annoyance and frustration and tiredness sink into his very soul and he took his glasses off to pinch the bridge of his nose and squeeze his eyes shut "I love you, angel and I want us to retire **together **to a cottage in a town where nothing much happens except when it's tourist season. I even have a cottage ready to buy in South Downs and it has a decent amount of land it's on so I can garden and bully my plants and it has several ornate bookshelves built into the walls so you can store your precious tomes. Yes I want peace and quiet angel, but I want it with you. I want us to be able to be seen out in public and not have to keep on the lookout for agents of Heaven and Hell stalking us with an excuse for why we're so close together without a weapon in sight except for a butter knife on the tips of our tongues. I just want the true experience of _living, _angel. We haven't tried very hard at the 'humanity' part of the job except for the eating and the drinking. I want _us, _Angel."

After his long monologue Crowley chanced a glance up at Aziraphale and was relieved to find a budding smile on his face rather than the previous look of grief.


	2. Chapter 2

"So. South Downs?"

"Literally nothing happens there and we will be the most interesting thing to move into that place"

Aziraphale hummed softly in response and sat back on the couch they had relocated to after that particular truth coming to light from Crowley and they decided unanimously to spend the rest of the night drinking and all around relaxing.

"It might seem the height of stupidity when we have miracles, but if we do move-"

"Which we will because we _both _need a change of pace, angel"

"_if _we move, I want us to do it by hand so that people don't look suspicious of two men moving in permanently and never having any furniture in their car, no moving van, nothing. And yet their house is fully furnished" Crowley looked stubbornly away, thinking of all the plants he'll have to move by hand (they were big plants by now, he'll need to hire a van because they would never fit in the Bentley as they are)

"I hate that you're right and I'll probably have to hire a moving van to get our furniture and my plants into the house. It'll take ages to get everything of ours settled together in a way we like.." (it did not take as long as they were expecting) "Are you going to keep the bookshop open?" he asked in a sudden burst of drunken curiosity

"I don't expect that I will to be quite honest dear." Aziraphale answered softly

"What? Why not?"

"Well, I know that you said this isn't retirement, but I think I'm getting a bit tired of glaring at so called customers that keep trying to steal my first editions..."

Crowley couldn't help but start snickering at Aziraphale. He supposedly loves humanity - until said humanity tries to get a hand on his precious first editions. Maybe it was time to retire as a bookshop owner and name his profession as 'collector' officially and then he can fill up all of the cottages fancy ornate Victorian bookshelves.

"Yeah that sounds like a plan, angel"

* * *

Two days later after they sobered up saw the celestial/demonic duo speeding on the skinny country roads surrounded by hedges in the Bentley towards their newly purchased cottage with Aziraphale looking no less panicked, even with little to no people on the road with them.

"I would've thought you being in the car with me so much and you never discorporating would've given you the perfect Pavlovian response of not looking like a terrified cat on its ninth life every time I go above 90miles per hour, angel but apparently not"

"I was starting to have faith in you and then you went and ran Anathema over, along with any hope I might've had that you'll ever drive normally and within the speed limit" here he smiled at Crowley, silently reassuring him that all being said was in jest and not in anger or accusation.

"That's fair angel" Crowley admitted after some thought.

After only an hour longer of driving (heaven nor hell would give a toss if they sped up their journey time in any way, they were hiding their tails trying to ignore their wayward earthbound agents that they thought had somehow become incapable of killing even though they were also their most incompetent field agents) Crowley perked up again and pressed the Bentley just that much faster then when they finally hit the town borders he slowed to a rather sensible 60 looking at Aziraphale to say 'look! I _can _ do it if I try hard enough!'

"The cottage is definitely considered closer to the outskirts of the town but it's quick enough to nip down to the shop for wine or something"

"Oh I wouldn't worry about alcohol running dry anytime soon. The only things I packed for this first trip down was the my Bible misprints and a case of all of my best wines."

"Got your priorities sorted out then?" 

"Oh yes dear. My list currently goes 1.My books 2.You 3.Food 4.Alcohol "

"Oi! Why am I ssecond? What do your booksss have that I don't?"

"Decent spelling for one but honestly, they're there because they're the things that I've put the most effort into accumulating"

"I was _thiss _close to setting fire to your Wilde collection, angel."

Aziraphale's eyes widened and turned to him looking absolutely horrified and was about to say something when Crowley when he interrupted;

"Oh! We're here! Unbuckle angel we're here."


End file.
